I seriously wish this idea came to me sooner because this only popped up in my head last week - a week before the long awaited trip to Burning Man. Okay wait, I lied, I've been planning on doing something like this for over a month and a half ago for Burning Man because I wanted to contribute to the community somehow with a playa gift to barter with while I'm there. But I just couldn't figure out exactly what I could do. For the last month and a half I've been pinning on my Pinterest under a secret board I created for dolls that I could take inspiration from. I've pinned so many ideas, but it wasn't enough to inspire me to get started on them. So I put the idea in the back of my mind thinking I shouldn't even do this anymore. Until one Monday morning {with Burning Man just a week a away} I had the urge to get into it again. The urge came with an idea attached to it - to make dolls in the order of the chakra colors!
...Wow, I instantly fell in love with it... It was definitely one of those "AHA!" moments... {thank you!} so that pretty much sold me. I immediately went shopping for supplies that day and pulled out my sewing machine and went straight to work for the entire week.

I literally free hand drafted a doll pattern and from scratch. As you can see, there was a lot of trial and error. I don't have any manila pattern paper handy, so I used my Whole Foods shopping bag as doll patterns.

..finally got the final pattern down! Now for cutting and sewing!

I used an old bed sheet to make my dolls out of because I don't have muslin fabric handy either :(. The only thing I bought really was the felt colors for the hearts. I didn't want to buy a whole bag of poly fil {doll stuffing} so I cut open an old teddy bear and used his instead!

Teddy doesn't mind sharing...!

Each heart is hand-sewn on to every single doll... with love :)

My army of Burning Men <3.

{p.s. the original idea was to make flammable dolls to personalize & then burn...! make your own burning man! maybe next time...}

I got myself a muslin bag to decorate and attach pieces of art from people and things I come across at Burning Man. And in exchange I'll have them choose what color they want or feel from the dolls I have; and attached to it will have a description of the chakra color meaning for a little added fun ;]

As you can see, I did a ton of revising, proofreading, and writing.. And yes, all hand-written... However, what's cool is that all this construction paper came from a box of art supplies that someone threw out as trash in the building! This couldn't have shown up at a better time. This was right when I was worried that I'd have to go back to the store and buy a whole pack of construction paper...! {thank you!}

I hand-wrote every description for each color of all the 7 chakras. I know I could've easily made photocopies, but, my printer doesn't work quick enough. And I think hand writing makes these homemade dolls even more organic in its design.

I did my best to include as much info as I could referencing the book, The Book of Psychic Symbols. Although initially, the way this works, is when your subconscious mind chooses a color you're supposed to determine what this color feels like or means to you first before referencing it from an outside source. These descriptions are really just an aid to the definition of each color meaning. It may not even relate to your situation at all or you as a person. These are commonly known descriptive meanings for these colors. But everyone has their own unique way of interpreting what colors feel like, which makes it even more fun. There are no rules in this. Just go with what you feel :)

This literally took me a whole day to write this all out... my hand is soooo sore... x( but I'm happy with the way it turned out!

Lastly, I had to somehow attach my information to have these dolls track back to me.. so I also added a hashtag so I can see what new friends I've made when they share their dolls on their social networks!

This was literally a week long project, and I wish I can make more energy dolls, but with the time left, I hardly have any energy to make more...! I also have friends and family to make a batch for when I get back, lol. These dolls are slowly becoming a hit. Maybe I'll plan ahead and sell them for next year? Anyways, I still have to close down the supply list with my camp this weekend, and then I'm off! I'm super nervous and excited.. I plan to take a ton of awesome pictures to bring back with me.

Stay tuned for the next post! I will reveal all my costume sketches and layout for Burning Man! :)